iCloud is coming: What is it?

Apple pre-announced that it would unveil "iCloud," a new service, during today's keynote. No one really seems to completely know what it is, but it seems to be some sort of online syncing and storage platform that both Macs and iDevices can access.

There are supposedly some music features involved, and perhaps video, too. Maybe apps will be able to save their "state" between iPhones and iPads and Macs. Maybe Apple TVs will be able to stream all your videos from anywhere.

Finally! This was the most-requested new addition from developers. It's a little absurd that it's 2011 and the only way to get iTunes music onto our iPhone from our computer is through a USB cable. And that the fastest way to get a photo on our computer is to email it to ourselves.

Better alerts and notifications

Apple's real-time "push notifications" service is a handy way to skirt the expense of text messages. But as anyone who gets more than a couple of notifications per day knows, they aren't handled very well in the system. You can only see the most recent notification per app, and there's no "inbox" of notifications. If you miss one, you miss one.

This needs to be re-thought, so there's a way to know 1) how many notifications you've received and 2) what they are. Google does a better job than Apple at this, and we expect Apple will improve its product.

A better camera app that takes cues from Instagram

One thing you still can't do with Apple's built-in photo app is take a picture and automatically share it with your Facebook, Twitter, or Flickr contacts. Meanwhile, apps like Instagram have taken off by allowing you to customize your photos with cool filters and share them instantly across multiple social networks.

We don't expect Apple to necessarily copy Instagram feature-for-feature, but there are definitely some ideas worth stealing. And some ideas from the Mac's iPhoto app to consider adding, like facial recognition.

In part, it depends how serious Apple is about running its own social photo network. This may come in the form of the built-in camera app, as an attachment to Ping, as another mobile social network, or perhaps as part of an app like the Mac's built-in PhotoBooth.

Either way, Apple is well aware of Instagram's popularity and usefulness: Apple marketing boss Phil Schiller -- a good photographer! -- has been an avid user.

A better Ping, or SOME sort of doubling-down on "social"

We don't know for sure, but it seems that Apple's "Ping" social network for sharing music has not been a big hit. That is, in part, we think, because it has been so feature-limited.

Specifically, we don't really have much interest in sharing our music purchases with our friends. But we have much interest in sharing (and learning about) other iTunes purchases, especially iOS apps, and to a lesser extent, movies.

We think Apple has broad ambitions for social networking, and it may want to compete with Facebook more than it wants to work closely with Facebook. Especially as Facebook moves deeper into mobile platforms, which would put it in closer competition with Apple.

This makes sense, given recent reports of Twitter integration into iOS 5. The question is whether it's just Twitter, or also Facebook, Foursquare, etc.

It's possible that Ping will become a broader social network, including app sharing, iBooks sharing, photo sharing, etc. Or it's possible Apple would build a social layer directly into the OS, and each app will have its own social features, which developers could also use. Or it's possible there will be an entirely new, social, "MobileMe" app.

Either way, we're expecting something. We're just not completely sure what it is.

A new background processing feature that lets apps update while you're not using them

Feel free to call this the "Instapaper solution" or the "New York Times app savior." The basic problem is that while Apple has made background processing work wonderfully for some apps, like Pandora and other streaming radio services, it still hasn't solved a major problem.

That is, news and information apps like the New York Times app, Instapaper, etc., don't have a way to fetch the latest updates, news stories, articles, etc., while you're not actively using their app. We'd love a solution, whether "pull" or "push," that lets these apps get updates in the background.

They will be much more useful, especially in New York, where we spend a lot of time using our iOS devices underground without Internet access -- and if we've forgotten to update our apps manually before we get on the subway, we're out of luck.

Near-field communication (NFC) features with access to developers

One of the big new features on the iPad and iPhone will supposedly be support for near-field communication, which basically means your device will be able to communicate 1-to-1 with other NFC devices, ranging from other iPads and iPhones to payment systems, etc.

Besides whatever mobile payments system Apple is building, we'd love to see developers get access to the NFC features, too. It could be a fun way to share data like contact info, music and e-books, apps, and more.

An Apple TV App Store

iOS 4 brought the iPad and iPhone under the same major iOS release. And Apple recently added two new content sources to Apple TV: Live streaming of MLB.TV and NBA games.

Now let's see Apple open up the iOS SDK and App Store for the Apple TV, Apple's set-top box which continues to sell well at Amazon.

There are plenty of apps we'd love to see, ranging from games and video to FaceTime.

We're on the fence about "widgets" on the iOS unlock and home screens

Developers seem to be into the idea of allowing "widgets" on your iPhone's home and unlock screens, which could tell you weather, sports scores, message updates, etc., without needing to launch any apps.

It's plausible that Apple could work out some sort of widget SDK, as Google Android has. But it might also clutter the user interface, something Apple tends to stay away from.

FaceTime updates

FaceTime over 3G, if Apple can make the video work in a way that isn't terrible.

FaceTime built into the iOS SDK, so developers can integrate it into apps.

And ideally, a smoother way to FaceTime between an iPhone/iPad and a Mac.

Developers want more and better access to the camera and video data

John Casasanta, who's behind the popular Camera+ app, sends us this wish list:

1) Access to raw, uncompressed camera data

2) The ability for 3rd-party developers to take HDR photos as the standard camera app does

3) The ability to take rapid shots with variable exposure settings as the standard Camera app does when shooting HDR

4) More control over camera functions such as shutter speed, exposure, ISO, etc

5) The ability to create groups in the photo library

6) The ability to save photos to any group in the photo library

7) The ability to delete photos in the photo library

8) The ability to edit photos in the photo library

9) A better solution for the "feature" where users have to approve location services in 3rd-party apps, otherwise they don't have full access to the photo library

Similarly, Eric Hoffert, CTO of Thwapr, a sort of "Instagram for video," passes along these requests for video:

And Christopher and Jason Laan of Laan Labs are hoping for a 3D camera someday:

Obviously this is just over the top, but as the phone is becoming so integral into us knowing our environment (i.e. gps) and how to interact with it, a 3d camera would permit developers to make apps that could help users interact with their surroundings from simple little ways like helping people better navigate in mall where there is no gps signal, to vastly improved product recognitions, incredible AR games, facial recognition that would work from most any angle (not just front shot).

Better tools for beta testing apps

There have been some improvements made in beta testing iOS apps, thanks especially to a startup called TestFlight.

But Apple can do a much better job than it has, allowing developers to provision them more easily, and allowing testers to download and install them as easily as they would a real app from the App Store.

More voice controls

Developers want to get in-app access to the same voice controls that Apple has built. This way you can tell the Kindle app to "turn the page" from the bathtub or tell Pandora to "pause" while you're driving.

There might also be a use for a text-to-speech engine, so your phone can read to you. That could be especially useful for translating.

New mapping, location, and directions features

As consumers, we are very happy with the iPhone Maps app. Developers like Foursquare and Yelp have done a good enough job surfacing interesting stuff to do nearby that Apple probably doesn't need to bother doing that itself. (Though we'd love to be able to cache map tiles on our iPhone better when we're in foreign countries without data roaming.)

Developers want to be able to use Google Street View within their apps, and to be able to use the map tiles APIs without necessarily laying over an actual area of land. They also want to be able to use the Google Maps directions within apps. And they want an official Apple "places" database/API, the way Foursquare and some other companies offer.

Some new app shopping features

How about the ability for developers to offer a 15-minute trial to apps before you have to commit to buying them?

Or the ability to sell major updates for a fee? It's getting several years into the iOS ecosystem, and some developers aren't seeing any new revenue from their users since their first purchase.

Perhaps the new iOS subscription offering will help solve some of this.

Odds and ends: Here's an assortment of 10 more little things that developers we talked to were interested in